You're Invited to the Blueberry Social!

Earlier in the Spring I was thinking about coming out of isolation and lockdowns, and the seasonality of what’s available. I’ve always tried to follow the seasons when it comes to menu selection, and thought it might be fun to do the same in the cocktail world. The last year has disconnected us not just from our friends and family, but our normal seasonal activities like travel and sports making this Spring and Summer unique, at the very least.

The first City Market Social was the Rhuby Social, celebrating one of spring’s earliest harvests, Rhubarb. As a heritage vegetable, rhubarb finds itself in plenty of applications from pies to jellies, to cakes and sauces. The Rhuby Social was 12 hours from idea to glass, and was the only one that featured hand harvested heritage rhubarb transformed into a house syrup.

And did we ever harvest. First I took everything from our family property in Woodstock, then a call for backyard rhubarb in Saint John had you responding in the dozens, and finally Farmer Dave came through with a huge load of rhubarb from an old upick. Honestly, If anyone wants to come with me next year to help pick, that would be awesome.

Working our way through the calendar, we’ve had rhubarb, strawberry, raspberry, and now we are on blueberry. Summer is a great time in NB, especially for the abundance of wild fruits and fish. Wild blueberries are one of the province’s largest (by value) exports. The intense flavour, and antioxidant levels, of wild blueberries just can’t be matched with high bush blueberries from away.
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Until August 28, enjoy one of four Blueberry Social cocktails at the Saint John City Market, and make sure to get your fill of wild NB blueberries while you can!
 
For more info about wild blueberry cultivation in NB check out this site https://nbwildblue.ca/